Starting Balance: $1,563.50 | Current Balance: $1,942.00 | Week: 3 | Exchange: MEXC

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Three weeks in. $1,000 is almost $2,000.

Week 3 exchange: MEXC. The reason is simple — 0% maker fees. When you're trading actively across multiple setups in a week, fees compound against you faster than most people realise. MEXC removes that friction entirely.

Why MEXC

MEXC sits at the top of the Trading365.org exchange rankings for good reason. 9.2/10. 0% maker fees. 500x leverage available. No mandatory KYC. 3,000+ trading pairs.

The full breakdown is at Trading365's MEXC review. The welcome bonus for new accounts is competitive — $150 in trading credits on first deposit. Combined with zero maker fees, the cost of running three trades this week was essentially nothing. Every gain stayed in the account.

Want to claim the same bonus? Sign up at MEXC using this referral link — same one I used to start the week.

Account setup: 12 minutes. Clean interface. Fast execution.

Trade 1 — Monday: The Patient Entry

BTC opened the week around $74,000 after last week's close. No urgency, no obvious catalyst — just a market that had been grinding up for two weeks and needed a pause.

Waited for the Monday dip. BTC pulled back to $73,800 mid-morning on low volume. That's the spot — no panic in the selling, just normal consolidation. Took a long at $73,900. 4x leverage on $500. Conservative sizing while I'm still learning the MEXC platform.

BTC drifted back up through $75,700 by Tuesday. Closed there. Clean trade, no drama.

Entry	$73,900
Exit	$75,700
Leverage	4x on $500
Gain	+$48.70

Trade 2 — Thursday: The Hormuz Trade

This was the trade of the week. Possibly the trade of the month.

The Iran situation has been background noise since Week 1 — the Strait of Hormuz closure was the catalyst for Week 2's Sunday panic trade. This week it resolved. Iran announced the Strait was reopening Thursday morning and BTC launched.

The move started before most people noticed. BTC pushed through $74,500, then $75,000, then $76,000 without pausing. By the time mainstream crypto media picked it up BTC was already at $77,000.

I had a position open before the news hit. Not because I predicted the announcement — because the technical setup was there. BTC had been coiling below $74,500 resistance all week. Opened a long at $74,200 Wednesday evening. 5x leverage on $600.

Closed at $77,400 Thursday afternoon. Didn't try to hold for the full $78,000 run. The 4%+ move in under 24 hours at 5x is enough. Greed kills good trades.

Entry	$74,200
Exit	$77,400
Leverage	5x on $600
Gain	+$129.60

Trade 3 — Weekend: Fading the Euphoria

After the Hormuz rally BTC hit $78,000+ and the sentiment flipped to pure greed. Every crypto account on X was calling $90,000 by end of month. That's usually when you sell, not buy.

Opened a short at $77,800 Friday evening. 3x leverage on $500. Small size — shorting a narrative-driven rally is lower probability than buying a dip, so I sized conservatively.

The pullback came Saturday-Sunday exactly as expected. Profit-taking, weekend liquidity thinning out, the initial Hormuz euphoria fading. BTC drifted back to $74,900 by Sunday evening. Closed there.

Entry (short)	$77,800
Exit	$74,900
Leverage	3x on $500
Gain	+$56.00

Week 3 Numbers

Opening balance	$1,563.50
MEXC bonus applied	+$150.00
Trade 1 gain (Monday)	+$48.70
Trade 2 gain (Thursday)	+$129.60
Trade 3 gain (Weekend short)	+$56.00
Fees (0% maker — minimal taker)	-$5.80
Week 3 close	$1,942.00
Week gain	+$378.50 (+24.2%)
Total gain from $1,000	+94.2%

The Zero Fee Difference

This week made the MEXC fee structure concrete. Three trades, active sizing, 0% maker fees across all of them. Estimated fee saving vs a standard 0.02% maker exchange: ~$47 on the week's volume. That's not nothing when you're compounding from a small base.

On a 0.02% maker exchange those fees erode your edge slowly but consistently. On MEXC they don't exist. At the scale this challenge is heading toward, that difference becomes significant.

Almost There

$1,942. Started at $1,000. Three weeks.

Week 4 the balance crosses $2,000 — probably comfortably. At that point the challenge stops being interesting for the numbers alone and starts being interesting for the system. Can you actually sustain 20-25% weekly gains indefinitely? Obviously not. But the compounding from the bonus stacking has given the account a head start that changes what's possible.

The exchange for Week 4 isn't confirmed yet. Watching the bonus landscape at Trading365.org — that's where I track what's live and what the conditions actually look like before committing.

Week 4 incoming.

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Not financial advice. All trading involves real risk. This is a personal experiment, not a strategy recommendation. Only trade what you can afford to lose.